Amazon (and AI) puts 14,000 employees out of work

Amazon has announced a cut in its parameters this year: 4% of its workforce is being made redundant.

According to Reuters, the total number of layoffs could reach 30,000 employees.

Beth Galetti, the company’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources, justifies this decision by an evolution in the way the company operates.

According to her, Amazon would like to reduce hierarchical levels within its structure and increase individual responsibility, thus favoring a horizontal organization.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s message is unequivocal: his ambition is to transform Amazon into the world’s biggest start-up. His aim is to enable the company to adapt rapidly to technological developments, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence.

This break began on Tuesday October 28: most executives will have 90 days within the company to find a new position internally.

Those who cannot be redeployed will receive severance pay and additional benefits.

Amazon assures that it will continue to recruit in strategic areas, notably related to AI, and will prioritize laid-off employees for these new positions.

According to Andy Jassy, generative AI represents a major turning point: it will enable Amazon to become more efficient, but it will also reduce the workforce required in certain areas.

While some traditional jobs will disappear or shrink, others will emerge around AI technologies. This technological revolution, he believes, will profoundly transform the way companies around the world operate.

These job cuts follow a wave of 27,000 redundancies by 2023.

Like other technology giants, Amazon is seeking to reduce its expenses against a backdrop of global economic slowdown.

For Neil Saunders, analyst at GlobalData, the company is undergoing a major strategic shift: it is gradually abandoning its human capital-based model in favor of an approach centered on technological infrastructure and automation.